Alright, there's a foot of snow outside and I'm not going to work tomorrow. What better time to start thinking about baseball?! Might as well get the fantasy keeper baseball league thread set up. Congratz again to Precious Roy last year on a dominating championship!

Looks like we started drafting Feb 4th last year. I think we can set a date of Sunday Feb 1st or Monday Feb 2nd to get the drafting process rolling.

All of the rules seemed to work out really well last year so it should be clean sailing this year.

This year we are definitely shortening the time per draft pick. We came right down to the wire last year in completing the draft. So, lets shave the amount of time per pick down to 18 hours. You have 18 hours to complete a draft pick following the selection prior to you. That should be more than enough time. It worked damn well in the TSM H2H Fantasy Basketball league this year. Once we get to round 10, if it looks like we are running behind in completing the draft, the time will be re-evaluated at the beginning of each round.

Remember, if you aren't going to be online send someone your selection so they can post it for you.

Also, if a player isn't in the Yahoo! Player pool he can't be selected during the draft. You will have to wait until Yahoo! adds him to the player pool to acquire him. A player can't add a player to your team unless he's in the player pool.

We will need 1 new member since Stephen will not be returning this year. I have the draft order set up already. If we get a 2nd manager to not return I'll have to go back and edit the draft order and the keeper list.

So for right now, I need all the returning managers from last year to check in and also we will need 1 new manager. So first come first serve there. New Managers check out the 3rd post for all the rules. The second post in the thread will have all the keepers in alphabetical order of the first name to help in the draft process.

For reference, here are the rules from the end of last year for any potential new teams that will be joining us at some point.

QUOTE

A. Teams can select a maximum of SIX keepers of any position.

B. Teams can choose to keep less than SIX keepers.

C. All keepers must be turned in by November 1st or 1 day after the World Series is over at midnight Pacific Standard Time. After this point if you have not turned in keepers and wish to be in the league the following season you will start off with a fresh team with no keepers.

D. Teams will lose a draft pick in the forthcoming draft corresponding to the round each of their keeper selections were drafted in.

(Example: Albert Pujols is chosen as a keeper and he was drafted in the first round of the previous draft. Team will not select a first round pick in the next draft because Pujols will be that team’s guaranteed player for the first round in the draft.)

E. If a team wants to keep an undrafted player as a keeper, than that undrafted player has the draft value in the following draft of final round selection.

(Example: If a team wants to keep three players chosen as undrafted free agents, then in the following draft these keepers will act as their draft picks in rounds 18, 19, and 20.)

F. If a player chosen as a keeper was drafted by another team and acquired via trade or as a free agent, the team choosing the keeper will lose the corresponding round pick that the player was drafted in.

(Example A: If a team trades for Derek Jeter, who was drafted in round three, and wants him as a keeper then Derek Jeter will act as their third round draft pick in the following draft.)(Example B: Chris Carpenter is drafted in round three and then dropped, probably due to injury. Then another team picks him up out of the free agent player pool and declares him a keeper, the team keeping Carpenter will have a draft value of Round 3 for the following draft not a Round 20 value like an undrafted free agent would.)

G. If more than one keeper was drafted in the same round, than one of the keepers will have its draft value round bumped to the following round.

(Example: A team wants to keep Jeter and Ichiro, acquired via trade, and both players were selected in round two of the draft. In the following draft Jeter will be that teams keeper for round 2 and Ichiro for round 3.)

H. Keepers can be kept for 3 years at their original draft value. After 3 years, if they have a draft value of round 11-20, their round value would have 5 rounds deducted from it. If the player has a draft round value of 1-10, than 3 rounds would be deducted from it. This would happen each year until the player would eventually be worth a first round draft pick.

(Example: Brian McCann has a draft value of 18. Once three years are up, he would have a draft value to start the fourth season of 13. If kept for the fifth season, he would have a value of 8. If kept for a sixth season, he would have a value of 5. If kept for the seventh season, he would have a value of 2. If kept again, he would have a value of 1 and that value would remain constant until Brian McCann is no longer kept.)

I. No trades will be processed on Sundays after 12pm, noon Eastern Standard Time. Any trade that is not cleared on or before this time will be processed on Monday. This will ensure that managers do not get trapped having empty roster spaces due to a late trade right before the 12 AM, midnight Pacific Time, deadline the rosters for the coming week are due.

J. During the draft, a manager has 18 hours to complete a draft pick. The time starts immediately following the previous selection. This is subject to change at and after Round 10 if we are strating to run behind on time to complete the draft.

K. If you draft a guy without 2008 stats during the draft that is a Rookie BEFORE the Yahoo! player pool is posted, and he is not in the player pool by the END of the draft, you lose that player as a draft pick and any rights to that player AND will be forced to select someone from the remaining undrafted players ONCE the draft is completed.

L. These rules are subject to review and revision after the season is over and prior to the start of drafting at the discretion of the league and the commissioner.